Micro-social Level Research Articles

Eficiența programului de intervenție psihosocială în adaptarea studenților internaționali

The study examines the effects of a special psychosocial intervention program on the adaptation of international students to a new university and sociocultural environment. The program was designed considering the resources and challenges of adaptation, focusing on the specific needs of these students. Using surveys and comparative analyses, the research assessed the program’s impact on social contact distances and the quality of psychosocial adaptation. The results indicate a significant reduction in social contact distances and an improvement in adaptation at the macro-, meso-, and micro-social levels. Compared to other university adaptation programs, the specialized intervention proved effective in facilitating the integration of international students, providing a supportive environment for personal development. The conclusions underscore the importance of group psychosocial intervention programs in promoting the adaptation and integration of international students into new academic and social environments.

Paradigma de activación y políticas sociales en América Latina

De la mano del neoliberalismo, a partir de los años 70, se configura una nueva forma de concebir la gestión social de la desocupación y de la pobreza que se caracteriza por incluir distintos programas sociales agrupados bajo el concepto de paradigma de activación o workfare. El eje central de esta transformación se vincula a un cambio en el diagnóstico sobre los problemas del empleo y la pobreza que comienza a estar fuertemente sesgado hacia las características que asume la oferta de fuerza de trabajo, es decir, que se plantea a nivel individual y microsocial. En América Latina esta reconfiguración se cristaliza en la proliferación de un conjunto de Programas de Transferencias Monetarias Condicionadas (PTMC). En este marco, el objetivo central de este artículo es analizar, desde una perspectiva crítica, cuáles son los soportes teóricos sobre los que se sustenta la implementación.

Arhitektonska potraga za stvarnim / Architectural Pursuit for the Real

The specificity of architectural activity in the process of creation lies in its abstraction of reality. Architects, who often do not know the context within which they operate, define goals, problems and tools based on professional analytical methods. The traditional educational system emphasizes the role of the expert as a “conductor” who controls the outcome with a drawing. At the same time, authorship and creativity enable the designer (company or project client) to determine how the newly built context functions, its appearance, and the way it is used by the end users. An even more common phenomenon is intuitive spatial activity, where due to the pressure of modern parameters of time and money, decisions are made based on the unconscious process of creation. The results are responses to fragments of reality or reckless actions on existing complex spatial relationships. During the entire process of creating a new reality, experts – who are members of the system and the macro-social level, act on the micro-social level and implement the values of the system. Ultra-subjective alienation from reality and the manipulative practice of narrative design solutions serve individuals instead of common interests. What are the possibilities of resisting the ideological construction of the new reality? If we want to improve the existing context with architecture, we should solve contradictions through spatial activity instead of hiding them ideologically. By including the subjective and objective realities of the context within which the architect operates, the possibility of strengthening the user and the community is realized. It is necessary to include reality in the creative process, in the way of their mutual interweaving instead of differentiating. It should not be the final stage of the process, but a parallel part of its initiation, development and completion.

Conflict of Military Governor A.N. Muravyov with Nizhny Novgorod Nobility during the Peasant Reform

The author analyzes complex relationships between military governor of the Nizhny Novgorod province A.N. Muravyov and the local nobility during the preparation and implementation of the peasant reform of 1861, as well as the trace that they left in historical memory twenty years later. There are considered the personalized mechanism of interaction between the government and society at the micro-social level, the method of resolving conflicts, including through appeals to higher authorities. The subjective and objective reasons for the enmity are revealed, including the experience of confrontation between the main protagonists during the Decembrist uprising, the consistent expansion of the circle of participants in the conflict, due to the inclusion of the governor’s supporters among the nobility after his resignation. The purpose of the study is to identify the peculiarities of social behavior of officials and noblemen through the analysis of correspondence between government officials and local nobility. The author found that the bureaucracy was always guided by the viewpoint of the monarch, and members of the nobility were much more independent in words and actions. This type of behavior was consistent with the privileged role of the upper class in the Russian Empire, especially in the pre-reform period. The conflict between the military governor and the local nobility was reflected in the controversial memories of A.N. Muravyov and his contribution to the abolition of serfdom in the Nizhny Novgorod province. The officials remembered A.N. Muravyov as an exponent of the will of the Tsar Liberator.

The emergence of social order in everyday interacting: re-conceptualizing a venerable sociological concept in light of conversation analysis

For more than a century social theorists have asked how order at the macro-social level is related to human activity at the micro-social level. Among their answers are accounts of macro-level social order as emerging in micro-level relations among individuals. Sawyer’s account of macro-level emergence in micro-level interaction rests on the individual’s understandings of interactional frames. However, Rawls draws on Garfinkel and Sacks to argue that sociologist’s accounts of the macro-level interaction order need to be grounded in observable, micro-level social practices, instead of using conceptual abstractions like frames. Arundale’s Conjoint Co-constituting Model of Communicating is grounded in research on observable social practices in Conversation Analysis, and offers an account of the emergence, in particular episodes of everyday interacting, of properties that define micro-level social systems. That account provides the basis for an account of the emergence, in recurrent micro-level interacting over time and space, of properties that define macro-level social systems. The basic idea is not new: what is new is accounting for the emergence of macro-level social order in terms of the recurrent emergence of micro-level social order as participants engage observable social practices in everyday interacting. Re-conceptualizing the emergence of macro-social order addresses sociology’s longstanding puzzlement regarding the macro–micro link, and points to needed research.

Elite athletes: what lessons for the future can be learned from their responses to the social disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic?

In mid-March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic was declared, disrupting established routines and impacting every aspect of our lives. Sport as a social phenomenon was no exception. On the one hand, with the suspension and postponement of competitions and the various restrictions, the pandemic seemed to stop time, destroying the previously familiar ways of functioning of the sports sector, and forcing it to constantly reinvent, restructure and adapt. On the other hand, the changed situation highlighted the problems and inequalities that sport had faced long before and that the pandemic had mostly exacerbated, but not caused. In this review article, we identify the lessons and insights the pandemic has brought, especially for elite athletes. Because many scientific articles have emerged in connection with the pandemic, we select and review them according to our focus on elite athletes and summarise their findings. We then use those findings to derive guidelines that can serve top athletes as a tool in potentially similar situations in the future. Our proposed guidelines are divided into macro-, meso-, and micro-social levels, encompassing national and international, organizational and individual perspectives.

Romanian first names in America: a synchronic perspective

This article deals with a topic which has not been researched extensively. It refers to first names of children born over the last decades in North America and aims to show how Romanian immigrants chose for their children various types of first names: traditional, international, adapted to the language used across the Atlantic, or specific to the adoptive country.
 A simple, four-question survey was drawn up and applied to 56 Romanians who have settled in Canada, the USA, and Martinique over the last decades. It reveals that the integration into the host country is achieved on the social, professional, and educational levels, as well as on the linguistic and onomastic ones. Thus, we can state that first names chosen for children born across the Atlantic are socio- and psycholinguistic markers not only of the attachment to family, cultural, and religious values, but also of the wish to integrate seamlessly into the adoptive society. The reasons behind the anthroponymic choices are related to the parents’ level of education, the size of the community of immigrants, the connection with certain religious, cultural, and educational institutions which can influence the parents’ onomastic decisions. At the same time, ethnic prestige, on the macrosocial level, and self-esteem, on the microsocial level, determine the choice of first names for newborns.

Morocco’s northern border region: gender, labour and mobility

This paper presents the results of two recent studies on gender, labour and mobility on the borders between Morocco and Spain. Industrial relocation and the feminised labour market was the first focus of our attention. Subsequently, we integrated research on cross-border labour markets, such as the small-scale commercial activity carried out by women. The objective of these studies is to understand the impacts of globalisation processes, such as industrial relocation and border dynamics, on the daily lives of women. Therefore, we consider theoretical approaches to female participation in emerging economic circuits in developing countries as a macro-vision that enables contextualisation at a micro-social level. At the micro level, our analysis draws from the notion of lived precariousness as a perspective that allows us to examine the testimonies and the meaning they give to their experience. The results not only indicate that the complexity of border life and its precariousness represent a challenge for women – who develop different ways of dealing with structural and cultural limits as they strive for more substantial autonomy and empowerment – but also provide a glimpse of a broader trend in female economic participation in these circuits that appears to reproduce gender inequalities and pose new obstacles.

Neoliberal narrative about competition and equality of chances

The article criticizes the position of neoliberal ideology, according to which every person in a market society has an equal chance of success. Various factors neutralizing the validity of this thesis are considered. Depending on the economic, social and cultural capital of the family, a person has chances for vertical mobility. The thesis of equality of chances seems to be a mythologeme, specially constructed and replicated for political purposes. It is proved that inequality is an integral aspect of the neoliberal order. We are talking about inequality both at the microsocial level and at the international level. Free competition is presented as an unattainable ideal.

DEFINITION ANALYSIS OF THE PHENOMENON OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

In the article the urgency of intercultural communication problem as a mean of understanding mental characteristics of different cultures is presented. The aim of the article is to perform definition analysis of the notion «intercultural communication». Analysis and systematization of scientific literature, comparative analysis and definition analysis of the «intercultural communication» notion were chosen as the leading methods. The logic of definition analysis of «intercultural communication» notion has been revealed. The aspects that are basic in the process of analytical research are presented, specifically: 1) the definition of intercultural communication as an integrative phenomenon that examines different aspects of interaction between the representatives of different cultures; 2) intercultural communication as a socially determined communicative process of informational interaction in the context of cultural exchange, which is carried out with the aim of mutual understanding. It is identified that intercultural communication, as an integrative phenomenon, contains knowledge of philosophic-cultural, socio-psychological, communicative and linguistic directions. The variability of approaches to the definition of the studied concept is revealed. Definitions of the «intercultural communication» concept are represented and its characteristic features are highlighted, specifically: the process of verbal and non-verbal communication of people from different cultures; the set of skills that provides the effectiveness of communication of people that belongs to different national and ethnic communities; the establishment of connection between people from different cultures; the acceptance of ways of thinking and behavior of different cultures; the ability to perform effective communicative interaction in the intercultural contexts; the social phenomenon; the interaction on micro-, meso- and microsocial level; the process of communication between the members of different cultural communities. It is noted that intercultural communication ensures effective interaction between different cultures and their representatives.

Epistemological Foundations of Complexity Theory

The present investigation studies the evolution of complexity based on the epistemological analysis of various documentary sources, some related to changes in society as a whole and others with the new concepts that have progressively been shaping and content to the concept of complexity. For this, the multisystemic conformation of society, the relationships and interdependence of its parts or subsystems, and how they operate in interdependence, promoting new spaces for growth, development, and new complexity, were studied. The work makes a systematic approach to the concept of complexity, seeking to achieve an epistemological synthesis that relates the theories that interpret society as an empirical construct and the various theories that seek to explain it, distinguishing those that address the micro-social level from those that refer to the society as a whole. Among the findings, it can be seen that the concept of complexity has evolved, moving from the fundamental concepts of systems theory to those that analyze the origin and behavior of societies. For this, the sources of complexity are identified, some from people, others from subsystems, and finally from society. Conceptually, new terms such as particles, waves, waves, and surges appear, seeking to explain the genesis of complexity and those factors that describe its evolution through attractors that move between order and chaos, generating structures catalytic or dissipative as required by society. Finally, based on complex thinking and available analytical tools, this work contributes significantly to the study of complexity theory.

Основные тенденции трансформации социокультурного пространства в условиях международной миграции

The article presents an analysis of the main consequences of globalization in the context of changes in the socio-cultural space of globalizing societies. The methodological basis of the study was formed on the grounds of the triangulation of socio-philosophical, sociological and systemic approaches, the complex application of which made it possible to identify the consequences of cultural globalization that take place at different structural levels of social organization. A socio-philosophical analysis of the main potential scenarios for the development of cultural globalization has been carried out, which are defined as glocalization/localization and transculturalism. The role of the regional factor is revealed as determining the outcome of cultural globalization in a particular society and the choice of one or another trend in the transformation of the socio-cultural space, in particular glocalization. The significance of the factor of international migration in this process is substantiated. The choice of the deductive logic of the presentation made it possible to illustrate some theoretical provisions with the data of an empirical study conducted in the spring of 2021 as part of a qualitative approach using in-depth and semi-structured interview methods. The sample design is determined by the following criteria: ethnicity (donor country), age, period of stay in Russia, educational status. The research case is presented by 12 informants - undergraduates and graduate students from China, studying at universities in Novosibirsk. The interpretation of the data obtained made it possible to identify the mechanism for implementing the transcultural model for the transformation of the socio-cultural space of globalizing countries through educational migration on the example of Russia and China. Based on the theoretical framework of the study, it was possible to come to the conclusion that in the process of cultural globalization, migrants are a very effective social category of “exporters”. However, depending on the type of migration and its subject, the results of such an impact vary and affect both the importing country, and to the exporting country of global culture. At the present stage of cultural globalization, the phenomenon of transculturalism has emerged as one of the trends in the transformation of the socio-cultural space, which is realized at the macro-, meso-, and micro-social levels. Its result is the expansion of living space to a transnational format, the formation of a drifting – transcultural identity and the diffuseness of cultures.

What Competencies Does a Community Occupational Therapist Need in Neurorehabilitation? Qualitative Perspectives

More than three million people in Chile suffer from neurological conditions, and many of these become permanent users of health services with a community approach. In this way, disciplinary competencies in this area are relevant. We seek to characterize the competencies for community occupational therapy intervention in neurorehabilitation. Using a qualitative approach, interviews were conducted with eighteen professionals and were analyzed using content analysis. The main results are associated with the competencies of knowledge associated with theoretical biomedical and community elements. Skills range from health evaluation and intervention on micro- and macrosocial levels. Attitude is also an important skill, stemming from personal and relational spheres. These findings suggest that interventions are essentially on a personal and microsocial level, focusing first on pathology and treatment, and later comprehending the interactions with a patient’s close social environment, such as family, schoolmates, and workmates and their physical environment at home, school, and the workplace. Although the final objective of community intervention is present in the discourse as being able to generate structural changes that favor well-being and social inclusion, concrete competencies are not appreciated on a macrosocial level.

Perceptions of and hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccination in older Chinese adults in Hong Kong: a qualitative study

BackgroundCOVID-19 vaccination is recommended for older adults by the World Health Organization. However, by July 15, 2021, only 26% of individuals over 60 years old in Hong Kong had received a first dose of the vaccine. The health belief model and the theory of planned behavior have been used to understand the determinants for COVID-19 vaccination in past literature. However, vaccination determinants can be complex and involve social and cultural factors that cannot be explained by micro-individual factors alone; hence, the health belief model and the theory of planned behavior cannot provide a complete understanding of vaccine hesitancy. Few studies on the barriers to, hesitancy toward, and motivations for COVID-19 vaccination among older Chinese adults have been performed. The aim of this study is to fill this gap by conducting a comprehensive analysis of this subject using the critical medical anthropology framework, extending the health belief model and the theory of planned behavior in understanding vaccination determinants among the older adult population.MethodsBetween November 2020 and February 2021, 31 adults (24 women and 7 men) over the age of 65 took part in semi-structured, one-on-one interviews. The data we gathered were then analyzed through a phenomenological approach.ResultsTwo major themes in the data were examined: barriers to vaccination and motivations for vaccination. The participants’ perceptions of and hesitancy toward vaccination demonstrated a confluence of factors at the individual (trust, confidence, and social support networks), microsocial (stigma toward health care workers), intermediate-social (government), and macrosocial (cultural stereotypes, civic and collective responsibility, and economic considerations) levels according to the critical medical anthropology framework.ConclusionsThe decision to receive a COVID-19 vaccination is a complex consideration for older adults of low socioeconomic status in Hong Kong. Using the critical medical anthropology framework, the decision-making experience is a reflection of the interaction of factors at different layers of social levels. The findings of this study extend the health belief model and the theory of planned behavior regarding the understanding of vaccination perceptions and relevant behaviors in an older adult population.

Performativity, Discourse and Communication: Relationship of Concepts

The article analyzes approaches to the study of phenomena and concepts of performativity, discourse and communication, and makes it possible to trace how various types of communication are interconnected in the structure of artistic culture. It has been established that in modern society, performativity, discourse and communication provide a higher level of generalization and prevalence than in previous historical periods, which leads to an expansion of the subject field for the study of these phenomena. The aim of the work is to research and systematize existing theories conceptualizing performativity, communication and discourse in the mode of humanitarian knowledge. This approach will contribute to solving the scientific problem of clarifying the conceptual and categorical apparatus of modern cultural studies and art history. Methodology of work. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study were philosophical and general scientific approaches, principles and methods that made it possible to analyze the phenomena of performativity, discourse and communication from different-vector positions: the method of generalization, made it possible to determine the place of performativity, discourse and communication in the worldview paradigm due to the analysis of ambiguous formulations and statements about the phenomena, which were presented in various sources; an interdisciplinary approach ensured the use of the latest theoretical developments in the social sciences and humanities; the sociological approach made it possible to consider the phenomena of performativity, discourse and communication at the macrosocial and microsocial levels.

Heterogeneity of COVID-19 Risk Perception: A Socio-Mathematical Model.

The perception of risk has been a key element in the experiences, containment and differential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. The complexity of this phenomenon requires the interdisciplinary integration of theoretical and methodological aspects, as this integration informs the objective of developing a mathematical proposal based on a conceptual model located within the social theory of risk at the micro-social level. The mathematical risk model used here was developed from a secondary analysis of a study of 12,649 individuals on the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic in a population in which the quantity and quality of the information made it possible to define a risk factor and its relationship to emotions and the sources of information used. Four sequential strategies were used to construct the model: choosing the variables for the questionnaire that theoretically corresponded to the conceptual model, constructing the risk vector and initial grouping of individuals by perception of risk, modeling by using principal component analysis and applying network methods. The theoretical model of risk, proposed and constructed through the analysis of groupings by quartiles and by networks in the studied population from a social and mathematical perspective, demonstrates the heterogeneity of risk perception as manifested by differences in perception by age, gender, expression of feelings and media consulted in a university community. The knowledge and methodology generated in these analyses contribute to the body of knowledge informing the response to future epidemiological contingencies.

Psychosocial meaning making in carceral spaces: a case study of prison and mental health care practice

Prisons represent sites of psychological distress and suffering. In this article, the implications of this, and the need for the maintenance of a psychosocial perspective, are explored. A psychogeographic overview of the prison environment is provided to consider the way it is constituted at different levels: the macro-social, meso-social and micro-social levels. Two vignettes are presented, which illustrate the process of loss and emergent self-destruction accompanying an enforced identity change followed by the radical means of stabilisation that may be adopted in opposition to this process. The essential nature of personal narrative construction – this process of sense making – is considered alongside the forcing impact of the social environment, as well as wider social pressures, and their impact on the dynamic process. In closing, a limitation of the employed methodology – focusing on individual experience – is remarked on: if these psychological processes take place through an act of modulation in response to a social field, how does the social field in turn respond to these modulations? In closing, I argue that through maintaining a psychosocial focus, researchers and clinicians discharge an ethical duty to maintain the attention of society on the suffering of some of its most vulnerable members.

Tipología de actores agrarios para el análisis de las políticas neoliberales en el campo mexicano (1992-2018). Un estudio comparativo en el bajío guanajuatense

Some of the implications of neoliberal policies for the Mexican countryside have been the deepening of social inequality and the dismantling of agrarian nuclei. However, processes of resistance and permanence of their collective vitality have also been observed. These processes are explained in part as a result of the social organization and historical conformation that preceded the legal changes in the ejidos. Based on an ethnographic work that included field trips, file review and semi-structured interviews in two ejidos that are located in the Guanajuato Bajío, a typology of agrarian actors is proposed that allows understanding at a micro-social level the various socio-spatial dynamics and productive areas that were reconfigured as a result of the application of neoliberal policies in the ejidos, which made possible or restricted their actions, in a region of the Mexican countryside historically considered one of the most productive agricultural regions at the national level.

Интеллект и интеллектуальные практики в цифровизирующемся мире: обзор Пятой международной научной конференции «Междисциплинарность в современном социально-гуманитарном знании – 2020»

Objective: to familiarize a wide range of the Journal readers with the results of the “Interdisciplinarity-2020” conference and the new ideas and research results presented in the reports of Russian and foreign scientists focused on the problem of intelligence in the digital world. Methods: a systematic approach to the cognition of social phenomena has determined the use of the following research methods: analysis, synthesis, comparison, structural and functional methods, content analysis.Results: the content of the main reports presented at the international scientific event is described (by G. B. Kleiner, D. V. Ushakov, R. M. Nureyev, E. V. Balatsky, S. G. Kirdina-Chandler and other researchers), which analyze various aspects of the functioning and development of intelligence in the digital world, the types and levels of intelligence, and the impact on socio-economic processes. The speakers presented various views on the processes of digital transformation of the economy and society, including the analysis of the main risks of implementing a digital project in Russia in terms of its impact on economic growth in the context of global political and economic trends. The thesis is formulated about the inevitability of the transition to a new type of economy - the intellectual economy, in which knowledge is the subject, and intelligence is the means of labor. Speakers from interdisciplinary positions hightlighted a number of urgent fundamental scientific problems that need to be solved: the creation of intellectual economy institutions; the change of the legal environment; the formation of a legal system that ensures the functioning of intellectualized sociotechnical systems. The complex of problems and tasks in the field of higher education aimed at the formation of intellectual competencies for the digital world is considered, the role and position of universities in the modern world are assessed. Scientific novelty: interdisciplinarity as one of the current trends in the development of scientific knowledge about man, nature and society is aimed at overcoming the fragmentation of disciplinary knowledge to ensure the effectiveness, consistency and harmony of social management and design. The novelty of the problems discussed at the conference was due to a special focus - “Intelligence in the digital world: influence, management, development”. Intelligence is considered as the main means of achieving social goals at both macro-, meso- and microsocial levels. The reports presented in the article are focused on a comprehensive analysis of the key factors of socio-economic and humanitarian development, the most important of which today are knowledge and intelligence. The scientific novelty of the discussed problems lies in the totality of the object, subject and research methods: a comprehensive analysis of intelligence in the modern digital world; expansion of the semantic content of this concept; the analysis of the phenomena of various types of intelligence interweaving (natural, artificial, social), based on an interdisciplinary approach; and uniting the efforts of economists, sociologists, linguists, philosophers, lawyers, historians, as well as representatives of technical branches of knowledge.Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the review can be used in scientific and educational activities to improve the level and quality of information interaction when implementing interdisciplinary practices of the academic community, to identify and disseminate the best practices of interdisciplinary research, as well as to improve the management and planning of innovation activities of academic organizations, evaluation and expertise of research activities.

Welcoming mobile children at school: institutional responses and new questions

Switzerland, like other countries in Europe, has long depended on migration and mobility for its economy. Facilitating the integration of migrant children in school, primarily through the acquisition of the local language, has therefore been a priority for policymakers. In recent years, mobility has been on the increase and mobility trajectories have become more diverse. A growing percentage of families arriving in the country have experienced repeated mobility and may not plan to settle in Switzerland for good. This paper examines institutional responses to the increasing number of mobile children in Swiss public schools, in particular, the manner in which such children are welcomed. It presents the main findings of an exploratory research project focused on children in repeated mobility, defined as having lived in multiple countries before their arrival in Switzerland, regardless of family background or legal status. Adopting a sociocultural psychological approach, the paper examines the macro-social level of cantonal educational policies regarding welcome processes, the meso-social level of local school policies, and the microsocial level of teachers’ practices and interactions in classrooms that welcome mobile children. Data include documentary analysis, interviews, and observations. Our analysis shows that a deficit view of mobile children and the preoccupation with language proficiency dominate policies and practices, resulting in the diversion of mobile children into special integration classes (so called “classes d’accueil” in the French speaking region, and “Integrationsklasse” in the Swiss German-speaking region). Mobility is conceptualized by Swiss policymakers, school directors, and teachers in terms of its challenges. In particular, school directors and teachers conceptualize mobility as increasing heterogeneity of the classroom. However, the situation varies greatly according to the personal orientations of school directors and teachers’ personal engagement. The paper emphasizes the ambiguous role of the integration classes: while they may impair the long-term chances of educational success by reducing academic expectations for non-native-speaking mobile children, they may also be used as “third spaces” which afford pedagogical freedom for dedicated teachers, potentially of benefit for children. The paper examines these propositions in the light of sociocultural educational literature and draws upon the case of welcoming mobile children to question a series of assumptions about the ultimate purposes of public schooling in Europe today.